Cancer clinics across the country have begun turning away thousands of Medicare patients, blaming the sequester budget cuts.

Oncologists say the reduced funding, which took effect for Medicare on April 1, makes it impossible to administer expensive chemotherapy drugs while staying afloat financially.

Patients at these clinics would need to seek treatment elsewhere, such as at hospitals that might not have the capacity to accommodate them.

If we treated the patients receiving the most expensive drugs, wed be out of business in six months to a year, said Jeff Vacirca, chief executive of North Shore Hematology Oncology Associates in New York. The drugs were going to lose money on were not going to administer right now.

After an emergency meeting Tuesday, Vacircas clinics decided that they would no longer see one-third of their 16,000 Medicare patients....

AF 1 needs to be grounded. And no vacations for the obamas or bidens until this is figured out.

I can’t imagine a Republican President spending tax money on partying while cancer patients are dying from being denied life saving drugs. He would be drawn and quartered by the press- and rightfully so.

Gorush,
I watched my FIL die over the course of two years. He was was in his mid 80’s and very ill. The carte blanche medical proceedures that were permitted in his case resulted in a cost that exceeded the ammount of money he made in his entire lifetime.

On top of that, the whole process seemed very un-natural to me. I do not want that. My time is my time. I just want to finish well. Because of medical intervention, he did not finish well.

It’s about cash flow. Gotta keep the cash coming in and out or the clinic’s in trouble (nothing wrong with that). Never mind ObastardCare, our long-standing Medicare is what he’s cutting...to make sure it hurts the right people. The providers we have in the here and now are being threatened to punish them and keep them in line.

It’s rather unsavory, really. Ghoulish, if you will.

19
posted on 04/03/2013 4:29:03 PM PDT
by Cyber Liberty
(I am a dissident. Will you join me? My name is John....)

“The care will likely be more expensive: One study from actuarial firm Milliman found that chemotherapy delivered in a hospital setting costs the federal government an average of $6,500 more annually than care delivered in a community clinic.”

It’s not about the money, it’s about the control. The commies want to shut down the small clinics in favor of the hospital. Hospital administrators can be readily controlled through state and federall bureaucrats and the administrators will have no trouble controlling the providers. Greater numbers of medicare patients will funneled into fewer facilities, and bureaucrats and administrators will be rewarded for keeping costs down.

0-care is so bad that it might collapse before it implodes the US economy; that’s why we are seeing Dim senators trying to repeal and delay some of the most onerous provisions such as the device tax.

Reduced funding for Medicare has nothing to do with sequester. Obamacare did cut Medcare funding. Democrats did not pass a doctor payment formula. The GOP is awol. Rarely hear from Boehner and Senate Republicans Minority leaders.

I thin eventually more of the public will be placing the blame on everyone, Republican and Democrat, who is not addressing Medicare responsibly. Medicare could singlehandedly bankrupt the nation; we could be at the point where the gov’t feels pressured to neglect everything else in favor of spending money on Medicare and Social Security. Look at the tens of trillions of dollars that had at one point been promised for it. Eventually, we are gonna have to figure out where it is all going and what can be done to stop it from bankrupting our nation. Perhaps for starters asking those who can afford their own medical care to go ahead and do so. And maybe at some point more people might start wondering if frantically trying to keep everyone alive for 95 or 100 years or more is absolutely necessary. It would understandably be considered callous, but what happens when everyone from the richest down to the working class feels themselves buried by out of control tax burdens and finds out the education, national defense and the military, science, universities and everything else could get neglected because of Social Security and Medicare?

My 90 Year Old Father has the same Oncologist (for Lymphoma)and he just sent him in for a CAT Scan.

I have read that Medicare will start to cut back on funding Radiology Testing for Patients over 75. Could just be hearsay, but I am starting to wonder why the Dr. sent my Dad in for testing. His Blood work was a little low, but no Lymph Node swelling or complaints.

City people have a built in bias for socialism. Socialism provides them with water, sewer, trash, roads... I have to take care of my own road. I haul my own water. I get none of the social privileges that city people get. I pay for city peoples mail to be delivered and have to drive 5 miles for my own mail. I pay for roads for others and seldom use them myself. I paid into social security also. Democrats and rePUBlican took $13.4T form the funds that should be used for medicare and social security. I did not vote for Obama, I do not vote for gun grabbers. I am a victim of the government and a senior citizen.

48
posted on 04/04/2013 5:46:29 AM PDT
by mountainlion
(Live well for those that did not make it back.)

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